Japan vs Poland permutations – who needs what to qualify?

Contrary to pre-tournament forecasts, Japan and Senegal sit pretty at the top of the table with four points each. Colombia lag just behind with three points of their own whilst Poland linger at the bottom with none.

Senegal and Japan require only one point in their respective games against Poland and Colombia to qualify.

If Colombia win then Japan will need to lose by fewer goals than Senegal to progress. The South American side can still qualify with a draw if Japan lose because they have a superior goal difference.

One of Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Senegal, Japan or Colombia will be in the World Cup semi-finals. Those nations have three semi-finals between them in the last 50 years.

Japan vs Poland odds

Interestingly, Japan – commonly known as Samurai Blue – come into this fixture as slight favourites with their odds at 9/5. A draw stands at 19/10.

The Whites and Reds meanwhile have their odds priced up at 9/5.

Japan vs Poland team news

The Blue Samurai have recovered from months of disarray leading up to the World Cup to be on the verge of reaching the knock-out stages.

They sacked Bosnian coach Vahid Halilhodzic in April and replaced him with Japanese coach Akira Nishino who has a stronger rapport with the players.

Nishino could recall Leicester’s Shinji Okazaki, who has featured in both of their previous games as a substitute. However, veteran goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima has made costly errors in consecutive matches and may be dropped in favour of Kosuke Nakamura.

Poland defender Kamil Glik’s odds of starting are high after made his comeback from a shoulder injury as a substitute against Colombia.

Japan captain Makoto Hasebe said: “I don’t think we can enter the match looking for a draw and to get the results we want.”

“Although we earned four points in two matches, we haven’t accomplished anything yet. We must enter the match with the intention to earn three points.”

Anis grew up supporting Manchester City but found joy and solace across Europe’s major football leagues.
Increasingly passionate about NBA, he is interested in and has written extensively about different aspects of sport across the years, previously working at Sky Sports News and Sport360 newspaper in Dubai.
He studied Journalism at University but spent a large portion of his academic years building City Watch instead - the largest independent Manchester City Twitter account and website.

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